Monday, March 7, 2016

Manga Monday: Time for a field trip!

Even though it's usually not organized through a school club, field trips are an integral part of high school life, and the girls of Megurigaoka Academy Private High School are headed to the mall in School-Live! Volume 2.

Note: School-Live! Volume 2 is part of an ongoing series. Check out the review of Volume 1here. Otherwise, read on!

It turns out that the School Live Club isn't the only group of people that survived the initial outbreak. There's another girl out there, in a storeroom, going through the motions of a normal school day each morning. It looks like she started out her survival with a friend, but she's gone now. And the question is: how much longer can she keep this charade up?The School Live Club, on the other hand, is bopping along as they always have. In fact, Yuki has a great idea! It's school trip season, and even though school groups don't usually plan their own field trips, they've got Megu-nee's permission to plan their own. Even though it's only to the shopping mall, Megu-nee's volunteered her car for the expedition, and Kurumi figures that she's driven in enough video games, so she should be able to manage the driving for the trip. So they've got their extra-big backpacks and are on their way. Who knows what they might find there.School-Live! Volume 2 moves the focus of the manga away from the shtick of not realizing that there's a zombie apocalypse in the works and lets us see a bit more into the actual lives of the girls. Kurumi realizes that she is going to actually have to train if she's going to be the protector of the group, even though it brings back bad memories of the outbreak. Yuri remains the practical, mother of the group, and Yuki...is Yuki.As we see more of this post-outbreak world, the strangeness of The School Living Club's situation becomes more obvious, and there are more and more questions piling up. School-Live! Volume 2 leaves the reader wondering what might be next for our girls.Highs: Stopping by Kurumi's house on the way to the mall really drives home the loneliness that the girls are trying to avoid.Lows: Some of the more obvious questions, such as what happened to the military and the government, are still unanswered.Verdict: As the girls grow and learn, and we get to see more perspectives, the world expands.Further Reading:Attack on Titan, My Neighbor Seki, The Devil is a Part-Timer! High School!